A Season to Remember

Since the beginning of the autumn 2008 season, the Fort Collins girls cross country team had a goal of returning to the Nike Cross Nationals and improving on their seventh-place finish there last year. As it turned out, they did make it back to nationals, and finished in the same seventh-place position. But, as it turns out, that accomplishment was far from given, in light of the challenges the season threw at them.

As early as the first meet, senior Tati Ogan, typically the team's third scorer, sat out with a lingering foot problem from her summer training. Throughout the season, Rachel Viger, often the team's second-fastest runner, battled asthma and allergy issues, sitting out more than one meet.

But the crushing blow came mid-season, when their top runner from 2007, who had placed 22nd at nationals, quit the team for personal reasons. When coach Chris Suppes announced it to the team he tried to manage expectations, stating that this would likely mean they wouldn't win the state championship, or advance to nationals. Immediately, however, the next-fastest runner, Miranda Benzel, who had been challenging for the first spot, said, "No, it won't. We'll do it without her." And, within days, Suppes watched as the team improved, runner by runner rising to the challenge of the next spot on the team. By the state meet, they knew they had a shot at the title, and beyond.

Keeping a team fit and motivated through the long season leading to nationals is "all about decisions and buy-in," says Suppes. "I get them to help on the decisions, and they buy in to the plan. Then they are mentally ready for it." He does admit, however, that he "got lucky" this year in that the workouts accomplished what they were supposed to do. "When you do it, and the workouts work, then they are motivated to keep doing it. The key is that they see that it works."

One of the decisions the team had bought into was that they wouldn't taper for the Colorado championship, knowing that this might mean sacrificing the state title for the Southwest regional meet in Arizona four weeks later. "Then, we got really lucky at state," Suppes says, "in that it didn't take much to win it." Which was good, as Viger suffered an asthma attack and finished far behind her usual position.
Four weeks later, however, it all came together. "There is a long-term effect," Suppes says. "Even if they are tired, they continue to improve." Really tapering for the first time in the season, they showed up in Arizona healthy and ready to run hard. Ranked second coming in, they ran away with the meet, winning it with 61 points, a whopping 44 points ahead of their closest rival.

So expectations were high again by nationals. But again challenges mounted. On Sunday before nationals, Denise Chilson, typically the sixth runner, came down with the flu. By Tuesday, top runner Benzel had caught it. Throughout Wednesday and on Thursday, as they traveled to Portland, Benzel was very ill, but showed some signs of recovery by the course-preview run on Friday, although she still asked to go lie down during the evening fun free time at Nike headquarters.

Race day they prepared like pros, calmly working through their warm-ups and taking their place on the starting line with game faces. A quarter mile into the race, however, as the pack rounded a tight corner, the team got caught in a tumble and Benzel, Viger and Kirsten Follett went down. Getting up in last place, they regrouped and worked their way back, in the end finishing seventh in a tight pack of teams, only 36 points out of third. "They ran really well," summarized coach Suppes, though disappointed in what might have been. "They had misfortune, and they dealt with it."

Looking back over the season, Chilson answered for the team that winning the Southwest region was the most satisfying race, but that "the experience of nationals is amazing." In the pages to come, we tried to capture a snapshot of that experience for you to enjoy vicariously, or to inspire dreams of being there yourself next year.